Toss Out a Ton of Haki First

"We should retreat and report to Colonel Burns. Let him join forces with several branches before coming back to encircle these pirates."

Reed had no mood to banter with John. Without drawing attention, he reached out and tugged at John's waistband, reminding him not to act rashly.

John disdainfully slapped Reed's hand away, stepped forward, and swept his gaze over the pirates.

"Sorry, I haven't been in the Marines for long. May I ask whether we have to take them alive, or can I claim credit by bringing back their heads?"

"Pfft!"

"Hahahaha!"

No one knew which pirate was the first to fail to hold back a laugh, but like collapsing dominoes, it set all the pirates roaring with laughter.

"He thinks he can arrest us? Hahaha!"

"What arrest? If he could, hahahaha! He wants to kill us!"

The pirates laughed until they were out of breath, tears streaming down their faces.

Some laughed so hard they rolled around on the ground and could not get back up for quite a while.

"These damned pirates!"

Faced with such blatant mockery, the Marines put aside their conflict with John and glared furiously at the wicked pirates.

The Marines knew perfectly well that, at this moment, they shared both glory and ruin with John!

Reed's expression turned grave. With both hands behind his back, he gripped the Den Den Mushi and called Colonel Burns for help again and again.

But no one ever answered!

"This isn't funny. Not funny at all."

The clear, innocent look in John's eyes gradually dimmed, turning into boundless chill.

"This concerns your lives. How can you treat it so lightly?!"

Boom!

With a deafening sonic boom, John launched himself from where he stood, becoming an afterimage as he lunged into the crowd of pirates.

The pirates only felt a violent gust blast into their faces, blurring their vision and preventing them from opening their eyes.

"Splurt!"

"Ahhh!!!"

The sound of tearing flesh came with shrill wails. When the pirates forced their eyes open, they saw an extremely bloody sight.

Those companions who had been rolling on the ground and laughing the loudest had either had their heads stomped apart, becoming headless corpses forever sprawled on the ground, or had their bellies split open and were despairingly clutching at the intestines spilling from their abdomens as they wailed.

And the foolish Marine was now holding Butcher Wade by the throat with one hand and lifting him high. The great pirate with a bounty of fifteen million Beli was as helpless as an infant in his grasp.

"W-What kind of monster is that?!"

The pirates could no longer laugh. The lackeys' legs shook uncontrollably as they felt the crushing gap in their very levels of life, like rabbits facing a tiger.

"What are you standing around for?! Shoot him!"

Ghost Axe Beckett, Death Coil Moro, and the other pirate captains were the first to react. As they roared orders to their crews, they raised flintlocks and revolvers and pulled the triggers at the Marine.

Bang, bang, bang—

Muzzle flames spat out as bullets streaked orange-yellow trails through the night, swarming toward John from all directions.

Even Butcher Wade, whose neck was being gripped as he was held aloft, was caught in this overwhelming barrage.

The pirates did not care about their comrade's safety at all!

However...

Clang, clang, clang—

When the dense, raindrop-like bullets struck John and Butcher Wade, they sounded as though they had hit heavy steel plates.

Round lead balls and conical bullets alike were crushed flat and deformed by kinetic force the instant they touched the two men's bodies, eventually falling helplessly to the ground.

"W-Why?!"

"Could this Marine be a Devil Fruit user?!"

"No, he must be like Captain Morgan and Moro—a user of a power called Armament Haki!"

"Armament Haki? Damn it! This Marine actually possesses the same special power as Captain Morgan and Moro!"

The pirates' shock turned into certainty, and they firmly believed this was the only reasonable explanation.

After all, they had personally seen Morgan, Moro, and the others use this special power called Armament Haki to block bullets and slashes.

"Thank you for the intelligence."

John's messy silver hair gleamed under the moonlight. He raised his free left hand and brushed the hair from his forehead back, revealing his brow.

His murderous gaze swept over the pirates, and the corner of his mouth curled slightly upward.

The hand gripping Butcher Wade's throat slowly tightened, strangling him to death before everyone's eyes.

His prey could only be killed by him!

"Idiots! Don't run your mouths!"

"We knew nothing about this Marine monster, but now he knows all our secrets!"

"As punishment for talking too much, you three will charge in first and find out what other cards that Marine monster has up his sleeve!"

The three loose-lipped pirates were shoved forward by their companions. They exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and charged at John with cutlasses in hand.

Seeing the three pirates rush at him, John merely raised his hand and tossed aside Butcher Wade's strangled corpse. Then he closed his eyes and spread his arms as if embracing them.

At the sight, the three pirates who had been reluctant and sluggish moments ago had their eyes light up. They accelerated, raising their blades to slash at John.

"An opening!"

Just as the three blades came within a hair's breadth of John's face...

Boom—

Surging airwaves erupted from John's body. Tons of Haki formed a tangible shockwave that swept outward from him in every direction.

In an instant, the three closest pirates were blasted backward, crashing into the pirates blocking the way behind them.

Like fallen leaves in a gale, the pirates were helplessly swept into the sky by the raging Haki before free-falling back down, raining people across the area.

In an instant, the weaker pirates were either dead or crippled, and agonized cries rose one after another.

"If you don't cherish your own lives, then others will trample on them too."

John slowly opened his eyes. His gaze passed over the heavily injured and dead pirates as he searched for King Snake Morgan.

That man's presence had disappeared from his Mantra the moment John had rushed into the pirate crowd.

Cold-blooded predators like snakes were naturally skilled at hiding. Combined with his mastery of Haki, there was a high chance he possessed Observation Killing!

Observation Killing was an extended branch of Haki. Its user could completely conceal his presence, as if he were invisible. It could also make those who relied on Observation Haki to sense an opponent's movements suddenly unable to detect him at all.

Glue Cone Thrust!

Undead Slash!

Just as John searched for Morgan with his eyes, two figures burst from the pile of pirates who had crashed to the ground, attacking him from behind from both sides.

Seeing this from the shoreline, Reed immediately shouted a warning:

"It's Death Coil Moro and Ghost Axe Beckett! Watch out, John!"

At the same time, a thick, pitch-black Glue Cone coated in Armament Haki and a double-bladed axe likewise coated in Armament Haki had respectively struck John's right cheek and the left side of his neck.